I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the standard of Jordan’s national team and while the Premier League may be a step too far at this stage, several players could come over to England and do a job in the lower leagues.
They all currently play their club football in Jordan, Saudi Arabia or Qatar. Since I arrived out here for these two games against Bangladesh and Australia, the players have been receptive to everything I’ve asked of them and the technical level has been really good. I wouldn’t want to single any of them out just before two big games but they have all been a pleasure to work with so far.
The only problem is none of them understand English. A couple of the coaches who were here before me speak good English so they are on the training ground with us all day and relay my instructions to the players.
We need to beat both Bangladesh and Australia to finish top of the World Cup qualifying group but Jordan won the reverse games against them so there’s every chance.
Wael Al-Qadi owns the hotel we are staying at and he recently bought Bristol Rovers. He’s football crazy and one of the loveliest guys you could wish to meet. He speaks perfect English and spends a lot of his life there. He flew out yesterday to watch Bristol Rovers against Cambridge tomorrow and then he’s going to Carlisle for their game on Monday. Maybe one or two of Jordan’s players could end up at Bristol Rovers. They are certainly good enough.
